Senate confirms Dr. Price as HHS secretary

By Dave Andrusko

Rep. Tom Price

It took another marathon session but at 2:00 this morning the Senate finally confirmed Rep. Tom Price to be the new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The vote, strictly along party lines (with one exception), was 52-47.

Rep. Price was the latest, but undoubtedly not the last, prolife nominee to be put through the meatgrinder by pro-abortion Senate Democrats.

Senate Republicans argued that Price was the best candidate to lead a department with 80,000 employees whose annual budget is close to $1 trillion. Pro-life Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that Rep. Price “can help bring stability to the health-care markets Obamacare has harmed. He can bring relief to families that Obamacare has hurt.”

He added Price “doesn’t just understand health-care policy as a policymaker, though he does deeply. He also understands it as a practicing physician.”

Pro-lifers admired Price for his outstanding record and for his passion.

Throughout his tenure in the United States House of Representatives, which began in 2005, Rep. Price compiled a 100% pro-life voting record. He is a co-sponsor of major pro-life legislation, including the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (which would protect from abortion unborn children at 20 weeks fetal age or later, who are capable of feeling pain), and the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (which would prevent any level of government from discriminating against health care providers who decline to participate in abortions, and would counter regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance).

Pep. Price has also been a leader on healthcare, proposing reforms that would dismantle Obamacare’s disastrous rationing mechanisms.